News : New firmware (6.0.B.3.171) certified for the Xperia go, Xperia P, Xperia sola and Xperia U

New firmware has been certified for the four Sony Xperia handsets running on the NovaThor chipset – the Xperia P, Xperia U, Xperia sola and soon-to-be-released Xperia go. The new firmware version number of 6.0.B.3.171, comes just a week after the 6.0.B.3.162 firmware rolled out for these handsets. We do not expect this to be the Android 4.0 update, but more of a performance and stability related release. 

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Latest Sony Xperia phones announced for South East Asia

Sony Mobile yesterday held a media event in Singapore where it launched the latest six Sony Xperia handsets for the South East Asia region (Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia). As expected, no new Xperia models were announced, instead we saw the official launch of six handsets for the region including the Xperia acro S, Xperia go, Xperia ion, Xperia miro, Xperia neo L and Xperia tipo.

Our man on the ground (owl_order) got hands-on with most of the devices and came away with positive thoughts. The event itself encouraged creativity in line with Sony Mobile’s current “Made of Imagination” marketing slogan. There was an open canvas where the media was invited to paint their own creations along with coloured sands to rub into the rugged smartphones. 

Whilst some may bemoan the lack of an announcement for a high-end flagship, it is quite clear that Sony Mobile is targeting the low-end smartphone segment and sees it as a good growth opportunity. After all, market research firm Canalys recently estimated that more than 40% of smartphones in China will be priced under $200 by 2015.

This was a point echoed by Matthew Lang, Head of Sony Mobile SEA & Oceania Customer Unit saying that the expanded portfolio left Sony Mobile “in a much better position to meet the diverse consumer needs of emerging markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia” and that these phones will “strengthen our footprint in Southeast Asia markets”.

Anyway, check out the gallery below where you’ll find pictures from the event along with some hands-on photos with the phones. As we’ve previously seen, three new apps for the Xperia range will be introduced (Walkman, Album, and Movies) and you can see some photos of these. Towards the end you’ll also see something we haven’t seen before, notification settings for the lock screen on the Xperia ion. See all of the pictures below.

New Sony Xperia handsets to launch in South East Asia in Q3 2012

These are the handset SKUs due to launch in South East Asia over the third quarter of 2012. Not all colours will be available in each region, see the list below to see which colour of handset is launching in each country. The Xperia go will initially launch with Android Gingerbread, whilst all other models will be pre-installed with Ice Cream Sandwich. Prices have not been confirmed.

If you want to see the full specifications of each device please click on “SPECIFICATIONS” at the top of the site which has all of these phones listed or the “COMPARISON” tab to compare specs between phones. The “GALLERY” tab includes press photos for all of the listed phones too.

Indonesia

Xperia acro S (black, white and pink)
Xperia go (black, white and yellow)
Xperia ion (black and red)
Xperia miro (white, white/gold, black and black/pink)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo (black, white, red and blue)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)

Malaysia

Xperia go (black, white and yellow)
Xperia ion (black and red)
Xperia miro (white, white/gold, black and black/pink)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)

Singapore

Xperia acro S (black and white)
Xperia go (black and white)
Xperia ion (black)
Xperia miro (black and white)
Xperia neo L (black and white)
Xperia tipo dual (black and silver)

Thanks again to owl_order!

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[Pics]Xperia go official press images

The Sony Xperia go was announced earlier today. The Xperia active successor sports a 3.5-inch (320 x 480) display that is both water and dust resistant. Our previous post was devoid of many images of the device, so we’ve attached a number of press photos below. The Xperia go is a reasonably attractive handset looking half between the Xperia sola and Xperia ion. The product page for the Xperia go can be found here. 

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Xperia go (Xperia advance) announced; 3.5-inch dust and water resistant phone

Sony Mobile has announced a new smartphone in the form of the Xperia go (ST27i/ST27a). The phone is the successor to the Xperia active (ST17i) launched last year and will be both dust and water resistant. Taking this one step further the Xperia go is a refined IP67 class smartphone, the highest level of resistance found in any smartphone.

IP67 means it has an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of 67. The first number refers to protection against solid objects, whilst the second number refers to protection against liquids. In practice this means that the Xperia go has total protection against dust and is water resistant between 15cm and 1m. The phone comes with a pressure sensor to make use of those weather related or barometer apps. It will also have a 3.5-inch (320 x 480) scratch-resistant mineral glass display capable of wet finger tracking. 

In terms of specs, the Xperia go will use a 1GHz dual-core ST-Ericsson NovaThor chipset as seen in the Xperia P, Xperia U and Xperia sola. It will come with a 3.5-inch (320 x 480) display, 512MB RAM, 8GB of internal storage (4GB user accessible) and microSD memory card support. It will also come with a 1305mAh embedded battery promising 6hrs 30 mins of GSM talk time. Camera capabilities will be taken care of a 5MP sensor with 720p video recording.

The Xperia go will be available in three colours (black, white and yellow), with the latter getting our initial vote. The Xperia go will launch during the third quarter. It will also launch in the United States under the ‘Xperia advance’ name. We have no idea if any US carrier is planning on picking this handset up or whether it will be able sim-free. The phone will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and update to Android ICS shortly thereafter.

Xperia go White Paper

Xperia go Specifications

1 GHz STE NovaThor™ U8500 Dual Core Processor.
ARM® Mali™ 400 GPU and NEON®CPU extensions.
Quad EDGE/GSM/GPRS 850, 900, 1800, 1900.
8 GB (up to 4 GB user-accessible memory) internal phone storage.
512 MB RAM.
Memory card slot: microSD™, up to 32 GB

3.5” Reality display with Mobile BRAVIA® engine.
xLOUD Experience

5 MP fast capture camera.
16x digital zoom.
LED photo flash.
720p HD video recording.

Accelerometer.
Proximity sensor.
Ambient light sensor.
Magnetometer.
Pressure sensor.

Bluetooth™.
aGPS.

IP67 certification.
DLNA Certified®.
Launched on Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread), upgradeable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Via Sony Mobile Press, Sony Mobile Developer and Sony Mobile Product Blog.

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